“A sword will pierce your soul.” Our adult Sunday school teacher quoted Luke 2:35 and glanced around the room. “Have your children ever pierced your soul?”

I nodded emphatically. The teacher gave me a quizzical look. Could he sense that the sword that pierced my soul after our baby boy was born was piercing it once again? That I was once again hearing the doctor describe a condition I hadn’t know existed until then?

“Your baby has a tracheoesophageal fistula,” the doctor said. “He needs immediate surgery or he will die.”

Diagnosis was the first of many swords to pierce my soul in the years to come. Some had everything to do with his medical condition:

• Complications requiring more surgeries
• Feeding issues
• One GI issue after another
• Frequent viruses and bacterial infections
• PTSD as a result of early, invasive medical procedures and treatments

Some had nothing to do with his health issues at all:

• Children being mean on the playground
• The call after he was in a car accident
• Girlfriends we weren’t crazy about
• Life choices that seemed at odds with our values
• A tenuous relationship during his young adult years

“A sword will pierce your soul,” the Sunday school teacher repeated. “If parenting pierced the soul of Mary, who raised a child who was fully human and fully divine, then we know that it will pierce our souls too.”

The teacher mentioned other instances when raising Jesus caused his parents pain:

To read the rest of A Sword Will Pierce Your Soul, visit Key Ministry’s blog for special needs parents.

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